Monster Squad Monday: Duncan Regehr

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We get an email from Dracula himself!

By Christopher Monfette

Saturday evening. Bored at home. Re-runs of old, black-and-white movies aging gracelessly across the late-night cable station. Too late to be awake; too early to sleep. If it helps to paint the scene, pretend it's thundering outside. The occasional crash of lightening casting silhouettes and shadow-shapes along the far wall.

Workaholic that I am, I fire up the laptop, run a quick scan of the site and, nearly out of habit, click over to my email, expecting little in the way of midnight correspondence. The in-box, however, is highlighted in bold. A few clicks later - a thunder-crash, I think, would do nicely here - and I notice the name of the sender. The mail might as well have read:

To: IGN DVD From: Dracula

As part our recent celebration of the upcoming Monster Squad DVD, we've been speaking with a number of the cast and crew, but what good would a monster-movie blowout be without, of course, a monster? The Mummy, apparently, can't grip a pen; the Wolfman, it turns out, isn't all that eloquent and Frankenstein, we learned, can only spell the word "bogus."

That left Dracula - and a few phone calls later, plus a letter or two through the Transylvanian post - and we got our response. Played like a vampiric version of an early Hannibal Lecter by actor Duncan Regehr, Dracula represents the film's "big bad" and today we bring you his answers to some of your most-asked questions.

Your performance as Dracula is distinctly menacing, yet fits perfectly into the spirit and camp of the film. When preparing for the role, how did you envision (or re-imagine) the classic character?

I started by structuring the character psychologically and later drew images on paper to get a physical idea of him. I wanted to create a mega-sociopath; a deeply insane, darkly powerful creature that knew exactly what he wanted and would go about the business of getting it with a total lack of conscience, and yet, had his own style of humour. I knew I wasn't going to play the mythic side of the character because I felt that was already built in - Dracula the icon, is a given. I think the key to playing any monster (classic or otherwise), whether it's King Kong, Gollum, or Grendel's mother, is to draw out the human aspects that we all relate to.

"The Count"

Many of the young actors in the Squad didn't have the luxury of growing up in a time when the Universal monsters were at their prime. What was your level of monster knowledge coming into the film, and how did you connect to these creatures as a child?

I had some exposure as a kid to the old Hammer films, but not much as we didn't have a television. I was really taken by the original Bram Stoker novel, "Dracula" , as I was with Mary Shelley's, "Frankenstein" and I loved the old Scandinavian tale of "Beowulf". Vlad the Impaler was certainly an interesting character from history. I recently completed a limited edition series of graphics called "Vlad" as a sort of homage to the subsequent character of Dracula.

Do you have a favorite Universal monster and/or monster movie? And, if so, why?

I really enjoyed Willem Dafoe's 'Nosferatu' in the film "Shadow of the Vampire." Also, the Goya-esque creature with the eyes in its hands from the movie, "Pan's Labyrinth." Stan Winston is an old friend and I'll never forget visiting his huge studio at the time he and his team were creating the fabulous dinosaurs for "Jurassic Park", and seeing the beasts 'in the flesh' so to speak. They were really wonderful works of art!

Monster Squad is a movie that has stayed with viewers over the years and older audiences are now sharing the film with a newer generation of fans. Can you discuss if (and how) the movie has followed or affected you since its initial release?

I'm thrilled to know that there has continued to be a huge and steadily expanding interest in this movie. We should do a sequel.

Can you discuss what it was like, as an older, more experienced actor to work with the Squad as children?

I remember being very impressed with how professional they all were. I felt that because they were kids, it was probably best to keep some distance from them during the shoot. That way the mystique and the danger element of the character, Dracula, would be easier to maintain for them.

Fred Dekker and Shane Black - both so incredibly talented so early in their careers. Can you talk a little about your time with the team on set?

Talented for sure. They weren't afraid to try for something different. I so appreciated that because I really wanted to make a Dracula that hadn't been seen before and they were with me all the way.

Fans are hungry for the DVD, but hungrier still for the possibility of another film. Could you ever envision another battle between Dracula and the Monster Squad and would you be up for the fight?

I would play this role again anytime! Monster Squad II might be called "The Vortex".

"Daedalus"

Finally, can you talk a bit about any projects you might currently be working on?

I'm currently working on a film called "The Strange Tale of DJ Cosmic". I play a man (DJ Cosmic) who is isolated in a large space, a network of room, thousands of miles away, within a research facility. His contact with the outside world is confined to a series of HD video monitors. Five stories spiral in and around him delivered by eight women. Six locations (Vancouver, San Francisco, Banff, Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara, and Montreal). I am also writing another art/poetry book and preparing for three solo exhibits of my art this year ~ one in Canada, one in Scotland and one in Oregon.

For anyone interested in checking out more of Regehr's art, they can do so by visiting https://www.duncanregehr.com. Who knew that such a vicious, blood-thirsty killing machine had such an artistic side!